Planet of the Rings: Volume 1

By Bernard Bayede

In a world surrounded by 6 rings that decorate the sky, the hand of fate​ sets the destiny of a chosen few in motion...

In the industrious continental nation of Emperia, a young woman must​ come to terms with her heart's intent before she marries an ambitious​ Lord while his sister dabbles in the supernatural.

Meanwhile, in the icy landscapes of the Bantulands, the son of a King​ prepares to take a spirit walk that will turn him into a supernatural beast​ known only in myth. Meanwhile, an evil presence lurks in the shadows​ of the snow.

Elsewhere, a supernatural monster hunter faces his most dangerous task​ as destiny brings them all together.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bernard Bayede
• Release date: Feb 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9780620919067

Bernard Bayede

Bernard Bayede is a South African author with a taste for out-of-this-world stories of science fiction and fantasy. Born and raised in beachside province of Kwa-Zulu Natal, Bayede has taken his love for sci-fi and fantasy and combined it with an African setting. Bayede has already published his first three books, The Bowman's Apprentice and Other Stories; Ignighted and Planet of the Rings. He is currently working on his fourth book (a sequel to Ignighted) and fifth book, Planet of the Rings Volume 2.

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By Bernard Bayede

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Copyright © Sphu Kubheka

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ISBN: 978-0-620-91906-7

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For Juliet,

My Soul Mate

Contents

A Letter by Eddison Randalf Kessler

Forsaken – A Hellepoint Story

The Story of the Metamorpher

The Story of the Bladeslinger

The Story of the Darkwielder

The Last of the Arkers

A LETTER BY EDDISON RANDALF KESSLER

Mercury 22nd, 492 ADI

To Whom This May Concern,

They say that in the beginning there was only The Light and the Darkness. No one knows how they came to be but they have been at war since the beginning of time. It was these two entities that created the six dimensions in their effort to control the universe: their home dimensions of the Heavens and the Underworld; the four dimensions of Fairden, Lloomis, the Ashlands and Limbo where they interacted; and our world, the mortal world, which they agreed to never physically interfere with, only influence.

As a child, I would gaze up at the colorful rings that circled our beautiful world and marvel at how these rings represented the other dimensions and wish more than anything to see them. But as an adult, I know that this shall never come to pass.

For a thousand years this world had known peace under the glow of the Light. Ever since the doorway to Fairden, the angelic dimension of the arkers, was opened and the prayers of the people were answered by the thousands, the Age of Illumination reigned. From the industrious dynasties of Emperia in the Lite to the bold clans of the Bantulands in the Nite and from the fearsome tribes of Tandem Solaris in the Dusque to the progressive nations of the Kingdom of Daun. I know how the legends go. And I know that the universe almost came to an end almost five hundred years ago.

The invasion, they called it. When the dark, mysterious creatures known as daminites rained from the stars in a hail of fire and brimstone. Hellfire they called it, as it wasn’t just the daminites that posed a danger to the world but also the manner of their arrival that caused destruction and mayhem.

Warriors from all four corners of the world united in fighting the daminites: wielders in the Lite; drakana in the Daun; warriors in the Nite and horselords in the Dusque. In the end, it was the very air we breathed that did the beasts in. However, no one could have seen the long-lasting damage done by the invasion: the end of the Age of Illumination and beginning of the age of entitlement. The world was once again divided, with all major kingdoms of the world being ruled by fear of another invasion.

With his deep desire to accrue power, the elected Emperian King commissioned excursions across the nation to look for the special crystals that give wielders their power. After amassing the crystals, Emperia became the leading kingdom of the world with inventors like me at the forefront. It was meant to be the beginning of a time of chivalry and a more civilized age.

First came our ability to generate heat by making use of the blue sparking crystals; then came our ability to heal almost all wounds with the green herbal crystals followed by our ability to communicate across long distances using yellow crystals. With the red crystals giving wielders the ability to move things with only the mind, the construction of towers, bridges, mills and mines was something that could only be described as revolutionary. Unfortunately, with only certain people with the power to use them, these wielders became valuable commodities and treated like property.

These events led directly to their rebellion which resulted in the desperate wielders creating the supernatural species known as vyrens: immortal, blood-drinking beings – and their derivatives: wights – undead beings with no minds of their own except for one thing: their appetite for human blood.

These events only escalated with the creation of bladeslingers by the humans to meet the growing supernatural threat. These special humans, imbued with speed, strength and agility, quickly became the go-to answer to all supernatural creatures including the ones that did not originate from Emperia.

As for me, as an inventor, my experiments with the supernatural properties of the crystals were a plenty but none as significant as the one that led me directly to my current predicament. Until recently, I’d never given much thought to prophecies. They had always been something from the arkers of Fairden. But through my experimentation, I’d managed to do something quite unparalleled: On Saturn the 12th, 491, I saw the future. And what I saw frightened me.

The world – or rather Emperia more specifically – had evolved far too quickly. Our obsession with being pioneers and using the supernatural to progress the world had robbed the world of its natural evolution. In the future I saw, the world had become obsessed with crystal sciences and would destroy itself. And I knew that I had played a part with my misguided search for enlightenment.

It took my visions to understand where we had gone wrong. After the daminite invasion, we’d lost contact with the arker dimension and as such no longer had our prayers answered. And in our hubris to answer our own prayers, we had played with powers beyond us which would inevitably doom us. It was at this point that I had made my decision.

Having foreseen that my pleas with government would fall on deaf ears, I took it upon myself to resolve the situation and found the means to gather all the stockpiles of crystals I could across Emperia and abscond with them. By Uranus the 22nd, I had all the crystals I could get my hands on and settled my affairs so that by the end of Mercury in the New Year, I would be long gone.

Under the guise of journeying across the world in an epic voyage designed to finally map the unknown places of the world, I will dispose of all the crystals in my possession and then disappear into the night to make sure that they will never be found.

However, with the knowledge of the destruction of the world being so valuable, I have left behind paintings of my visions in various parts of Emperia with the hope that someone worthy may find them and not only save the world from the threats ahead but unite the world not in fear but with hope.

If you’re reading this then know that your destiny is already in motion and that fate is set by your own hand.

Yours Hopefully,

Eddison Randalf Kessler.

FORSAKEN

A HELLEPOINT STORY

Hellepoint City: a place of dreams and a place of nightmares. Growing up, Theodora Lange had never really had any love for the place. With its elaborate architecture that consisted of buildings with extremely high ceilings; exuberant number of arches and very wide corridors, Theodora had always found it quite off-putting. Every building looked like a cathedral including King Victor’s Palace. It didn’t help that the family housekeeper and her nurse always told her scary stories of the monsters that lurked about the city during the night – a tactic designed to keep her from being outside after the sun went down.

However, when Theodora moved away at the age of nine, she’d found herself missing the scary city. It did not help that Theodora grew up to understand that Hellepoint, being the capital of the continental nation of Emperia, was where all the exciting things happened. It was there that the elected King ruled the country with an iron fist. It was there that all the latest in science and engineering was discovered. It was also there where all the docks were that took people to the various parts of the world.

Theodora had been told long ago that there were other places in the world. She remembered how she initially believed the lie that the rest of the world was discovered during the Great Voyage of 492, only to be told much later that the rest of the world was already known by the time Eddison Randalf Kessler pulled off the heist of the century. But since learning that there were continents other than Emperia in the world, she’d wanted more than anything to see them.

Theodora had wanted to see Tandem Solaris in the dusque having heard how half of it was practically a dessert while the other being nothing but jungle having never seen either. She wanted to see Noctovia in the nite which was apparently an ice-ridden landscape with fearsome dark men who had descended from wolves. Then of course there was the Kingdom of Daun which lay in the daun: two massive islands once united but since split by a civil war centuries earlier. Theodora wanted to see them all but knew that she couldn’t and that was all because of her father.

Theodora’s father, Lord Edmond Lange, was a politician. Having inherited his great ambition of being a ruler from his own father, Lord Edmond had wanted nothing more than to rule Emperia as King. And, like all men and women with even a drop of royal blood in them, Lord Edmond was eligible to be elected King. But after four consecutive terms without being elected and only managing to rise to Vice Count of Hellepoint, the Lord had eventually left Hellepoint, taking a nine-year-old Theodora with him.

This was how Theodora ended up growing up in Lighthaven for the past ten years. And while growing up as the daughter of the Count of Lighthaven had its benefits, Theodora had missed being in the capital and was ecstatic when her Lord father had told her that he had good news: he’d just received word that he was being appointed Count of Hellepoint which automatically made him a part of the House of Dukes – noblemen that answered only to the elected King or Queen of Emperia and were all next in the line of succession in the next election.

Oh, that’s wonderful news, father, said Theodora when she’d heard the news. So, will we live in the city, perhaps in the castle? Having grown accustomed to the finer things in life as a Lady, Theodora had always dreamed of living in a castle.

However, her father gave her a solemn look. Unfortunately, Dora, while that would ordinarily be true as I am a Duke, it’s an honorary title and—

An honorary title? said Theodora, worried.

Yes. Understand, I am, first and foremost, going to be the Count of Hellepoint which means my job will be to run the city of Hellepoint. That means by default, I am in the King’s inner circle but in actuality—

However, Theodora didn’t have the patience to listen to how the political hierarchy worked. Father, where will we live?

Why, at the old Lange Manor of course.

Theodora’s face dropped. Oh. While she didn’t have a problem with the old manor house – a lovely place in its own right with it being a huge building surrounded by a vast amount of land – it was half a day’s horse-ride from the city. Her father had noticed her face.

Now, now, Theodora. I will have you know there is some good news. Do you remember Oswald Wright and his sister Ember?

Yes. Theodora remembered them perfectly. The Wrights had been left to look after the old manor when they’d left. The elder Wright, Oswald and Ember’s father had been the groundkeeper when they still lived there. When the Langes moved to Lighthaven, Lord Edmond had decided to allow Mr. Wright to farm the lands and turn it into a plantation. This had turned into a very lucrative business and made Mr. Wright something of a rich man.

He’d eventually opened up three other large plantations in the outskirts of Hellepoint and turned Lange Manor back into a home worthy of a Lord just in time to be named a Lord in his own right. While he’d died before he could enjoy the title, his son Oswald now enjoyed the spoils of lordship which mainly amounted to a respect his family had never afforded before.

Lord Edmond continued. Well Oswald, or Lord Oswald now, has asked me for your hand in marriage and I have graciously accepted.

Oh. Theodora knew better than to react negatively. Before she died, her mother had told her that one day her father would arrange a marriage for her and that she had to trust that he would never marry her off to someone untoward. However, Lord Edmond sensed the reservation regardless.

Now Theodora, you should know that I did not take this match up lightly. In fact, the only reason I felt any inclination to accept the proposal was because of your history as childhood friends.

Lord Edmond had a point. When the Lange family moved into the manor house after her mother had died, little Oz and Ember had become her friends. While others thought it strange that a Vice Count’s daughter was friends with the children of the groundskeeper and housekeeper, Theodora had never cared and neither had the Wright children. In fact, her and Ember had become the best of friends and it would have been the same with Oswald if he wasn’t always helping his father with chores now and then. They had all three been sad when she and her father had to leave them behind.

Remembering their history, Theodora put on her best smile. Well, the match sounds delightful father. When do we leave for Hellepoint?

*

With her undying love for travelling, Theodora had been delighted to hear that they’d be travelling back to the capital by ship. While it was only from one side of Emperia to the other, it was still thrilling to watch Lighthaven disappear in the distance behind them and have Hellepoint rise from the fog ahead of them. Seeing the skyline of towers, castles and four-storey buildings come into view was thrilling.

Ever inquisitive about sailing, Theodora had asked one of the sailors about everything she could about traversing the seas. The sailor had first told her about the four points on the compass: lite, nite, dusque and daun. He’d then told her about how if one wanted to travel to the Kingdom of Daun, one would have to depart from the daun side of Hellepoint City while if one was going to Tandem Solaris, one would leave from the dusque port of Hellepoint which was where they were coming in now.

When the sailor said that only members of His Majesty’s Royal Navy were allowed to travel to other nations, Theodora had enthusiastically asked if he’d been in any battles. It was at that point that Theodora doubted the man’s ability to tell the truth.

Battles on the waters have been far and few between; mainly disputes between trade federations for trade routes. Those are often settled by gentlemen, sitting over pipes and alcohol in elegant rooms. No, the greatest threats of the four seas are the mermaids.

There’s no such thing.

Really? So, you can believe in wielders and arkers and daminites, but you can’t believe in mermaids?

"Well wielders are real enough, sure. Otherwise, how does one use a crystal? Without wielders, there would be no civilization. No running water, no bridges, no elevators. We’d literally be living in the dark if there weren’t blue crystals and wielders to make them spark. As for arkers, they all died off during ‘The Fall’. The daminites are well documented in all the history books so I can believe in them. But mermaids, this is the first I’ve heard of mermaids, except in bedtime stories, of course."

And where do you think those stories come from? Legends passed down from generation to generation. Every country has legends, and every legend has some truth to it. The sailor pointed dusque. From the tandemites of Tandem Solaris: beasts made by reanimating dead daminite carcasses I hear, he said before pointing daun, in the opposite direction. To the dragons of the Kingdom of Daun.

"Dragons don’t exist."

Not anymore but they used to, long ago before the world belonged to man. They died out before our time but there are scientists who have found bones that could only belong to them. That’s how the drakana have their dragon-breath.

No, no, said Theodora, denouncing the sailor’s history. Their dragon-breath comes them drinking potions made from the lava they harvest from the volcanos over there. Theodora remembered learning about this from her tutor just a few years ago. She’d learnt all about the legendary sword-wielding soldiers who answered only to their King. She remembered being fascinated by how their rulers passed their rules down from father to son, giving no other relatives chances to rule.

The sailor had finally heard enough of her doubt. Fine don’t believe me. But don’t say I didn’t warn you if one day you find yourself in the middle of the ocean and your ship is attacked by beautiful women with fins for feet.

Hey Cabin-boy, said another much older sailor. You’re not scaring our guests with your tales of mermaids again, are you?

It’s not a tale if it’s true, said the Cabin-boy to the older sailor who by the look of his much cleaner navy-blue uniform was a lieutenant.

The Lieutenant smiled. It doesn’t matter if the stories are true. If Lady Theodora is never going to traverse the seas, then she need not worry of the legends of the sea. What she best be worried about are the legends of the land. Specifically, those of Hellepoint City. This time it was the Lieutenant that pointed, to the city which was even closer.

And what legends are those?

Have you ever heard of a vyren? The Lieutenant continued when Theodora shook her hand. A vyren is a human being that’s brought back from the dead and feasts on the blood of the living. They’re venomous creatures that can only be stopped by a dagger to the heart made of human bone but are also weakened by iron. As the legend goes, the first vyren was turned by her wielder lover who couldn’t live without his beloved. What he couldn’t know was that the powers that brought her back to life made her unable to physically age and she could only remain alive by feeding off the living. To make matters worse, there was a side effect unforeseen by the wielder which allowed the vyren to make more vyrens.

How does that happen? asked Theodora, curious.

If you get bitten by a vyren and drink their blood before dying, you will wake up in your grave, a vyren yourself.

Now Theodora had a thousand questions but only asked one. Why would a human being drink the blood of a vyren?

"Perhaps they were forced to; perhaps they wanted to become immortal. Or maybe, they just liked the idea of being able to move like the wind and have the strength of a hundred men. Perhaps they liked the idea of being able to see for miles at the dead of a moonless night or hear someone talking on the other side of a castle. Who knows? What I do know, is that